The Controversial Essay – Here’s 12 Controversial Essay Topics

Everyone has an opinion. Opinions are free, and anyone will give you theirs at no charge. It is good to have strong feelings about things, because they guide our behaviors. For example, if you think that too many people are in jail for minor crimes, then you may be passionate enough to take some action – email your Congressman or Senator or join a group that is working to get someone local released. But when you are asked to write a controversial essay for a class assignment, your opinion is not good enough. You have to have facts and data to back it up.

Brief Structure and Steps for How to Write a Controversial Essay

Your essay begins like all others. You have to have a topic and a thesis statement. Your thesis statement, of course, is your opinion. These things will be put in the introduction of your essay.

Do the Research. Opinions are worthless without evidence to support them. You have to find the evidence to support your opinion.

Organize your information. This is not difficult for a persuasive essay. First you will list your arguments, and under each argument you will list the information that supports it.

Decide the order in which your arguments will be placed in your essay. Some people like to begin with the strongest argument; others like to end with it.

Write your body paragraphs. Each of your arguments will take up one paragraph – your argument is the topic sentence and our evidence is all of the supporting detail. For a basic essay, you will need at least 3 arguments, although you certainly may have more than that.

Make sure your introduction grabs the reader immediately, preferably with some shocking statistic. “Of all the prisoners in the entire world, 25% of them are sitting in U.S. prisons. Of all the countries in the world, we have the highest percentage of our population imprisoned.”

Rough draft. Revise. Revise. Final Draft – you know this already.

There is no lack of Controversial Topics for Essays

If you are looking for a good topic for a controversial essay, just listen to the national news on any given day. Or, take a look at this list, and see if any spark an interest:

Planned Parenthood – Should government funding for this organization be stopped since it does perform abortions?

Given all of the mass shootings over the past several years, should we have tighter gun laws?

Should we fine people who do not re-cycle?

Should we get out of the Middle East or should we go “all in?”

Should the U.S. take in Syrian refugees?

Do privately owned businesses have the right to refuse service to gays?

Should corporations be allowed to give unlimited funds to political campaigns?

Should we have tougher laws on animal cruelty?

Should we teach creationism along with evolution in our schools?

Should the drinking age be lowered to 18?

Should pot be legalized nationwide?

Should we have term limits on member of Congress?

Surely, you will be able to find one issue from this list about which you have strong feelings. Go get the evidence to support those feelings and write a “killer” essay.